By: msn

The government in South Africa says it will not help about 4,000 miners inside an illegal closed mine in the country's North West province as part of an official policy against illegal mining.

The miners in the mineshaft in Stilfontein are believed to be suffering from a lack of food, water and other basic necessities after police close off the entrances used to transport their supplies underground.

It is part of the police's Vala Umgodi, or Close the Hole, operation, which includes cutting off miners' supplies to force them to return to the surface and be arrested.

In the last few weeks, over 1,000 miners surface at various mines in North West province, with many reported to be weak, hungry and sickly after going for weeks without basic supplies.

About 20 miners surface from the mineshaft in Stilfontein this week as police guard areas around the mine to catch all those appearing from underground.

Cabinet Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni tells reporters on Wednesday that the government will not send any help to the illegal miners because they are involved in a criminal act.

“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped; criminals are to be prosecuted. We didn’t send them there," Ntshavheni says.

Illegal mining remains common in South Africa's old gold-mining areas, with miners going into closed shafts to dig for any possible remaining deposits.

The illegal miners are often from neighboring countries, and police say the illegal operations involve larger syndicates that employ the miners.

Their presence in closed mines also creates problems with nearby communities, which complain that the illegal miners commit crimes ranging from robberies to rape.

Illegal mining groups are known to be heavily armed and disputes between rival groups sometimes result in fatal confrontations.